HELENA — A state district judge in Helena has agreed to temporarily suspend former Montana Senate President Sen. Jason Ellsworth from office, while he goes through the legal process on a charge of official misconduct.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office investigated Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, over his handling of state contracts while he was Senate president – an issue that caused controversy throughout the 2025 Montana legislative session. Earlier this month, state prosecutors filed one misdemeanor official misconduct charge against him.
State law says a judge may suspend an official without pay when they’re charged with official misconduct. If the official is acquitted, they can return to office; if they're convicted, they will be permanently removed.
District Judge Kathy Seeley said in an order that prosecutors had shown probable cause, so she ordered him suspended from the Senate until a final judgment.
In December 2024, while Ellsworth was serving as Senate president, he signed off on a $170,000 contract with a former business associate, to track a series of judicial reform bills proposed before the session. Senate President Sen. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, who replaced Ellsworth, asked the Legislative Audit Division to look into the contract.
Prosecutors echoed the auditor’s initial finding, arguing Ellsworth had not followed proper requirements when taking bids for a state contract, and that the original decision to split the $170,000 contract into two smaller contracts appeared to be a way to get around state procurement requirements.
Ellsworth has consistently denied any wrongdoing, arguing that he was not trying to get around contracting requirements and that the claims against him were largely motivated by his political divisions with the new Senate leadership.
Ellsworth’s suspension will have a relatively limited impact. He was already unable to participate in legislative interim committees, after a Senate supermajority voted to punish him in the wake of an ethics investigation. He will be termed-out of the Senate at the end of 2026.
